Seattle-based Trident Seafoods announce that, due to headwinds in the marketplace, it has decided to delay groundbreaking on construction of its new processing plant in Unalaska, Alaska, to 2025, pushing its expected operational date to 2028. The company had expected to break ground in 2024.
Company CEO Joe Bundrant stated he has never seen markets like this, saying, “The rate and pace at which markets are collapsing across our key species is staggering.”
An “unprecedented confluence of high inventory levels, low consumer demand, and aggressive price competition in global markets” — as well as the impact of inflation and rising interest rates — influenced Trident’s decision, a company release said.
Trident is a privately held, U.S.-owned vertically integrated seafood harvesting and processing company, producing virtually every commercial species of salmon, whitefish, and crab harvested in the North Pacific and Alaska. The Unalaska plant will feature state-of-the-art equipment and operations that will replace the company’s current facility in Akutan, Alaska. Senior vice president of Alaska Operations, Jeff Welbourn, explained that the Akutan facility has been in operation since the 1980s, and that although it has served the company well, it is no longer feasible to maintain it long term.
Stefanie Moreland, executive vice president of Public Affairs, stated that the company was working with Akutan to soften the impact of the company’s eventual move to Unalaska, but “delaying the project start date does not change our long-term plan.”
